A review by not_another_ana
Severance by Ling Ma

challenging dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

3.75/5

Memories beget memories. Shen Fever being a disease of remembering, the fevered are trapped indefinitely in their memories. But what is the difference between the fevered and us? Because I remember too, I remember perfectly. My memories replay, umprompted, on repeat. And our days, like theirs, continue in an infinite loop. We drive, we sleep, we drive some more.

The end is nigh and Candace Chen is still going to work. She's typical corporate drone, working in cheap Bible manufacturing submerged in the everyday routine, so when the Shen Fever hits she just forges on. But the disease cannot be contained. People get sick or flee the city, work stops and services come to a halt leaving immune Candace completely alone in New York City until a group of survivors find her. Led by a self styled messianic leader, with promises of a safe place to settle in, the group might pose more danger to Candace than the disease. 

This book was published in 2018 but the similarities to the Covid-19 pandemic cannot be ignored, to the point that I wondered if Ling Ma is secretly a seer. Both diseases start in China, they have similar symptoms at first glance, people wear facemasks, the world pretty much shuts down, etc. If you're still feeling the effects of the pandemic then I don't recommend picking this up. The book also lacks any quotation marks which would usually annoy me but in this case it works in giving the story a dreamy vibe. The author also uses it quite sparingly since this is mostly an internal narration.

Ling Ma constructs this lovely atmospheric vibe-y cocoon of narration that drags the reader in. It's poetic and dreamy yet cemented in reality. It's a book that happens in the past, the present and the future at the same time. This is unmistakably personal, influenced by the author's life and it shows in the way the writer explores the themes of identity, belonging and family. A critic of capitalism and routine, I could easily connect with it and Candace. The way she clung to normality and the monotony of work resonated with me, sometimes the world is ending and you just can't deal with that. Where it lost me a bit was with the group of survivors and their journey. I understand adding a bit of conflict and drama to the story but Candace's interior world was so rich that this was a harsh break from the chapters in the past and the exploration of her psyche. 
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